U.S. Army Days Away From Enlisting Women Into Combat Divisions

FORT MEADE, Md. (WJZ) -- Four months after the landmark decision to open military combat to women, the U.S. Army is days away from enlisting its first female candidates into the armored and infantry divisions.

Mary Bubala reports recruitment begins Friday.

From inside Fort Meade, the commanding general of U.S. Army recruiting talked about this major advancement for women. On Friday, thousands of combat positions start opening to women.

"At the small unit level were male only. Now those are going to become integrated units," said Maj. Gen. Jeff Snow, U.S. Army recruiting. "This is a change, but I would argue it's evolutionary. Iit's not revolutionary because we've been doing this for some time."

Back in 2012, the Army started opening thousands of positions to women, including combat engineer and field artillery. Then its storied ranger school opened to women, with three graduating last year.

Major General Snow says overall recruiting of women is up as the barriers come down, even if they don't choose a combat role.

"The fact that they could meant that many of them came in and started to have a conversation about the opportunities," said Maj. Gen. Snow.

The major general says Army standards will remain the same--a concern voiced by some men. But some positions are being defined for the first time that will affect both genders.

"There were men in my formation that I would argue probably did not have the standards to be infantryman. So now we have a standard--it's a gender neutral standard," said Maj. Gen. Snow.

And unlike the civilian world, it is equal pay for equal work. Men and women in the Army are on the same pay scale.

Across the entire military, more than 220,000  jobs will now be available to women.